Philly Confidential

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An unidentified man died after taking a shotgun blast to his face and shoulder while he sat inside a car on 47th Street between Parrish and Westminster in the Mill Creek section of West Philadelphia, police said.

Cops said the man was sitting inside a dark 1997 Nissan Maxima around 8:30 p.m. when he was shot. Medics pronounced the man dead on the scene at 8:55 p.m.

Investigators said it appeared that the suspect shot the victim through the driver's side window of the car that the victim was driving. Police said the car hit at least one house, but the house did not appear to be badly damaged.

Police were unsure of the circumstances surrounding the shooting, and a detailed description of the suspect was not immediately available.

The victim was unidentifable because of the exent of his injuries, Chief Inspector Scott Small said. Police said the man was between 20 and 30 years old.

As they scoured the scene, police found a shotgun in an alley near Markoe Street and reovered three shotgun shells.

Neighbors of the West Philadelphia block said if it weren't such a rainy night, the murder may never have happened.

"If it wasn't raining, we all would've been out there, the kids would've been out there," said Yanilla Brown, 33, as she and other neighbors watched cops investigate the eerie scene under a sky lit by cracks of lightning.

Brown and other neighbors said they don't recognize the 1997 Nissan sedan the man died in. His body, his face shot off in the blast, lie slumped in the driver's seat as cops milled about the block.

"Another statistic," Brown said, sighing. "It's a shame that someone's son is lying in there like that."

Thunder boomed above as Brown's 7-year-old daughter slipped out of her house and joined her at the corner, peering down the street at the car.

"Mommy, they said they gotta take the body out," the young child said.

Brown covered her daughter's head with her hands and gently moved the young girl back toward home.